Hello all

Just wondering if anyone can help us with any ideas!

I am in London and I've booked my flights for 1 week around Christmas in Geneva/ Switzerland for myself, my wife and my 1 year old daughter.
Hotels in Geneva seem costly, so we are thinking of getting one in French side, like Ferney-Voltaire.

How are the border controls between Geneva and Ferney-Voltaire?
Myself and my daughter have British passports, so we should be fine but my wife has Indian passport.

Since she has 'Permanent/ Indefinite UK Residency' stamp on her passport, she can travel to Switzerland but has to get EU/ Schengen visa for France for which the appointment at French embassy is out of time now.

Would it be OK if I book our hotel in Ferney-Voltaire but still commute to Geneva to visit and explore during the week? I am planning to rent a car in Geneva for a week as we don't know much French for public transport which could be more expensive as well.

If we should ONLY book our hotel in Switzerland, could you pass any ideas/ links for any economical 2-3 star hotel in Geneva or around Geneva as we can commute from there in our car.

Thanks for your help in advance.
Kunal.

Hi Kunal,
crossing the border into France and back I have never been checked, but people in front of me have often been pulled out. It's mostly the Swiss border controls checking if you have done too much shopping in France, but gambling on not being checked might be a bit risky. There are also mobile controls (again about the shopping), so even if you have made it across the border you are not safe!
If you want to stay somewhere a bit cheaper you might want to try and find hotels or B&B just outside of Geneva, e.g. in or around Nyon. The Nyon website will take you to the B&Bs, www.nyon.ch. Nyon is about 15 mins away from Geneva airport by car.
Hope this helps,
swisskat

This seemed familiar - not sure how you got through the net but you already posted it here, here, and here.

the OP had a glitch when s/he posted. The same thread came up three or four times on the "new post" page. If you check the date/time you can see they were posted at the same time. (not including ColonBoris's post of course).